He is Risen! Celebrate the Risen Christ!

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

We hope you have a wonderful Easter celebration with your friends and family!

Today is a bright day! A day that we celebrate our hope, in an otherwise hopeless world.
On the cross and through Christ’s resurrection He defeated sin, death, and Satan. Christ rose victoriously on our behalf. He crushed the serpent’s head. After the darkness, sadness and gloom that fell on Friday (I wrote about this in my last post), there is the brightness of Easter Sunday. Christ is the light of the world.
The Lord grants us some wonderful promises, because of His death and resurrection. Jesus says in John 16:33,

“I have said those things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Take heart, dear Christian, even though your daily trials may seem too much to bear. Our victorious Savior comforts us with these words. He has overcome the world!
Our hope is in Christ. Paul gives those that are in Christ some more powerful promises. These words should encourage us, and give us great hope. 

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
— Colossians 2:13-15

We were dead, but now we are alive in Christ. Our debt has been paid in full. There’s nothing that we can add to what Christ has already done for us. He defeated death, sin, and Satan on the cross and in his resurrection. He rose victoriously. Hallelujah!!!
I love the way Hwa Yung describes what Christ has accomplished for us as Christus Victor – Christ Victorious.

“Through the Cross all forces hostile to humanity, whether sin and death, the Devil and his hosts, the demonic structures in the world and occult forces, all forms of oppressions and existential alienation, and the like are overcome and defeated. Christians are thereby set free and share in Christ’s triumph over them.”
— Hwa Yung, Deliver us from Evil, p. 17

Let us all rejoice and sing the Hallelujah Chorus together as we give thanks for the blessed hope that is found on Easter!
1 Corinthians 15 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, because it speaks of the resurrection, and what Christ has done for us. Paul makes it clear that the validity of our faith hinges on the resurrection. If the resurrection isn’t true then nothing else matters. Yet we have an assurance through Christ that God is making all things new. Since we have this blessed hope in what Christ secured for us through His death and resurrection Paul ends the chapter with these powerful and comforting words.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory?” “O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
—1 Corinthians 15:54b-58